I track people who are disrupting the world of mobile technology. Non-conformists, innovators and agitators are this blog's unsung heroes, from entrepreneurs to scientists, to rebellious hackers. I'm the author of "We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous and the Global Cyber Insurgency", (Little Brown, 2012) which The New York Times called a "lively, startling book that reads as 'The Social Network' for group hackers." I recently relocated to Forbes' San Francisco office, and was previously Forbes' London bureau chief from 2008-12, interviewing British billionaires like Philip Green and controversial figures like Mohammed Al Fayed; I wrote last year's billionaires cover story on Russia's Yuri Milner, and have broken stories like the Facebook-Spotify partnership in 2011. Before all this I had stints at the BBC and as a radio journalist. You can watch me on 'The Daily Show' here. If you have a story idea or tip, e-mail me at polson@forbes.com or follow me on Twitter: parmy.

Amid ACTA Outcy, Politicians Don Anonymous Guy Fawkes Masks

Members of Poland's Parliament hold up Guy Fawkes masks, symbolizing protests by Anonymous, to protest ACTA.

A new photo is doing the rounds on the Internet. It shows members of the Polish parliament holding print-outs of the notorious Guy Fawkes mask in front of their faces, homage to an unofficial symbol of the Anonymous cyber collective.

The reason: they’re protesting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a treaty that seems to carry echoes of SOPA and Internet censorship. Unfortunately for members of Poland’s left-wing Palikot’s Movement party, most members of the the European Union signed up to ACTA yesterday, the first major step towards ratification.

The appearance of masks in Poland was fitting considering that some of the biggest protests against ACTA are taking place in that country right now – thousands of protestors have taken to the streets for the last three days.

Supporters of Anonymous, an online group identity that attracts political activists and pranksters, have meanwhile attacked Polish government websites in protest of ACTA.

And Frenchman Kader Arif has resigned as European rapporteur on the treaty’s text, complaining in a note yesterday of “unprecedented manoeuvres of the right of Parliament to impose an accelerated schedule to pass the agreement as soon as possible before the public is alerted,” adding “I will not participate in this charade.”

ACTA hasn’t had the same kind of publicity as SOPA, but it’s just as controversial. So what is it?

First off, the treaty is nothing new. In fact countries like South Korea, Canada and the U.S. already signed it in October last year. It is an international agreement that promises not to change any laws but simply put new rules in place for the way governments work together to crack down on counterfeited goods. It also affects the web, and and pirated material like movies and music.

The European Commission (head honcho of the E.U.) has said that ACTA won’t “restrict freedom on the internet,” censor or shut down any websites, but simplify the way musicians and movie production houses react to an infringement of their Intellectual Property Rights. Since the Internet means their works could be shown across different countries, all with different laws, ACTA would lead to more common rules over things like:

What kind of evidence they would need to launch a complaint.

How urgent their need for copyright protection is.

What will happen to any counterfeit goods if they’ve been seized.

Protests against ACTA; Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife

The commission argues that ACTA will help protect jobs in Europe and stem the flow of 8 billion euros out of the region thanks to counterfeit goods.

This all sounds great, but many civic groups, NGOs and politicians smell danger. The vaguely-worded treaty, for instance, could eventually include factors that go beyond SOPA and PIPA and lead to actual blocking of content on the web.

Over at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa has claimed ACTA is more dangerous than SOPA, largely because lawmakers like him can’t do anything to change it once enforced. “It’s not coming to me for a vote,” he said. “It purports that it does not change existing laws. But once implemented, it creates a whole new enforcement system and will virtually tie the hands of Congress to undo it.”

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